“ All in ye Merrie Month of May ” 
orchard full of Giant Cowslips, yellow and tan-coloured ; 
and in one corner, under the ivied wall, nestled a clump of 
Rhubarb, with its beautiful red stalks and mighty green 
leaves. People talk of Acanthus. It is beautiful, but I 
think the Rhubarb quite as beautiful, and I always have a 
fellow-feeling for the old Scots cobbler who put it as an 
ornamental plant in the forefront of his wayside garden. 
The old monks were very fond of copying natural leaves 
and flowers in the carving they put in churches, and in 
some cases, notably at Melrose Abbey, were very successful. 
There is a pillar in the south transept where the carving is 
particularly fine, representing the curly greens or Kale to 
be seen to this day in every Scotch garden or kailyard. 
This word Kaleyard is derived from the Danish kaal, cab- 
bage, and gaard, garden or yard, pronounced yaird. They 
also excelled in cooking, it would seem, since the old song 
says they 
Made guid kail 
On Fridays when they fasted, 
Nor wanted either beef or ale 
As long as their neighbour’s lasted. 
There is a cloister, too, at Melrose, beautifully carved 
with a variety of flowers — Lilies, Roses, Heath, Ferns, Oak- 
leaves and Thistles. 
A beautiful modern example of this nature-carving may 
be seen at Wellington College Chapel, where there are 
carvings of Fir-cones, Polypodium, Foxgloves, Heath, Water- 
lily, and Osmunda Fern ; and in the ante-chapel such plants 
represented as are to be found in wild and desert places 
beyond the pale of the Church — Thorns, Brambles, Figs, 
and Apples, emblems of the Fall. In the apse every capital 
has special reference to the window. For instance, the 
Ascension window has evergreens and the Baptismal one, a 
water-lily. Thanks are due for all this to the taste of Arch- 
bishop Benson, who was headmaster at the time. Certainly 
thistles are very ornamental. A small railway station near 
here often has its strip of garden along the back of the 
platform full of Giant Thistles, planted in a double row like 
123 
